Now a word about Sumpter!

Sumpter's epic begins with the discovery of gold by five men from the deep South and their hand
-hewn log cabin with stone fireplace and rock chimney construction in 1862.They named it,
"Fort Sumter" in commemoration of the 1861 shelling at the National Garrison at Charleston, S.C.
This historical cabin site is about a half mile above Sumpter on the Granite Road. In 1883, the name was not acceptable to the Postal Department, so "Fort" was dropped and a "P" added to the
spelling. Sumpter lay quietly until the Transcontinental Railroad reached Baker City in 1884. The area
began to "boom." The town of Sumpter was platted in 1886, the same year the Statue of Liberty was
dedicated on Bedloe's Island in New York's harbor. As the town rushed ahead, Sumpter became a
"rip-roaring" place, like all mining towns of those early days. In 1896, the Sumpter Valley Railroad
reached Sumpter, which added to the already-growing community. The real activity was in the 1899
-1903 period, with the opening of numerous hard-rock mines and the extensive area usage of
hydraulic placer mining. By then, Sumpter boasted a brickyard, a sawmill, a smelter, electric lights,
a fine gravity flow water system with reservoir (still in use to this day) and a street paved with planks
and miles of wooden sidewalks. There were baseball and basketball teams, a racetrack, an
undertaker, several assayers, a brewery, a dairy, two cigar factories, and extensive China Town,
a hospital, sixteen saloons, livery stables, and blacksmith shops--also five hotels, a clothing store,
three general stores, a public school with 200 students, an opera house, two banks, four churches,
a telephone system, newspapers, and a fire department. By 1901, Sumpter had grown to more
than 30,000 people and 81 business establishments.............
By 1905 and '06, the mines began to lose yield and close down. The area's population began to
shrink as well. In 1913, with the Columbia Mine still in operation, the dredging of the valley
commenced. Sumpter began to breathe life again. The Columbia Mine stopped operations in 1916,
leaving only the No. 1 and No. 2 gold dredges working the Sumpter Valley floor......
Sunday, August 13, 1917, began like any other day, but by the day's end, this prosperous town was
reduced to a pile of ashen rubble, by a fire which consumed virtually the entire business district plus
a great number of private homes in a 12 block area. The hospital building up on the hill
(which is now a bed and breadkfast) is the only remaining original building still standing
in the Historic town of Sumpter today...........
The No. 2 dredge worked the valley floor, with its 3/4 " opening trommel screen looking for placer
gold nuggets and coarse flakes, roughly the size of coarse pepper until 1923. And.... The No. 1 dredge worked the valley floor in a serpentine pattern until 1924. The dredge that currently rests at
the edge of Sumpter today, was built for the Sumpter Valley Dredging Company in 1935. Because
of World War II, it shut down operations from 1942-1945. The dredge was re-opened under various
owners until all the dredging of the Sumpter Valley ceased in 1954. It recovered more than $4.5
million in gold during its heyday. This was at a time when gold was officially priced in the USA
in a range of $20.67 per ounce to its maximum of $35 per ounce until it was shut down in 1954.
It is said that over $10 millions in gold was recovered by the dredging of of Sumpter Valley alone.....
History is still very visible here........ Much remains to intrigue the vision and thoughts of those
who pass this way. While it has not returned to its former levels of population, Sumpter is
experiencing a mini-real estate boom with much new construction and many stubborn miners
still working the area hills and streams in pursuit of ages old, golden dreams in 1999 and beyond.
Sumpter crossed into the new millennium with a hardy core of 177 winter residents who form the
heart of this stubborn but still breathing small American town.........

Now, a few columns from the Sumpter Miner -- 1900 (a turn of the century local newspaper)
Celebrated Geologist Visits Blue Mountains
Professor Waldemar Lindgren Reports on Gold Camps

Swedish born economic geologist is studying the rocks and mountains of Northeast Oregon
for the United States Geological Survey
The following story contains extracts from a report being prepared by W.Lindgren for the U.S.G.S.
to be published as soon as he returns to the East. His field experience includes a visit to the famous
Mother Lode of CA and his reports are thought to be the best detailed of anything available.
BONANZA MINE
"Though some gold-quartz veins are known from the head of Gimlet Creek and other places
on the divide toward Granite Creek and Sumpter, the only place in which they appear strongly
developed and in which they have been mined with success is the Bonanza district.
"The Bonanza mine is situated about 10 miles west of Sumpter on the headwaters of Burnt River,
at an elevation of 5,140' The first location is said to have been made in 1877 by a pioneer
prospector named Jack Haggard, who sold it in 1879 for $350 to Bonanza Mining Company.
In 1892, the mine was bought by Geiser Brothers for a reported sum of $3,000 and worked
by them until 1898, when it was then sold to the present owners, a Pittsburg, PA corporation, for a
price believed to have been $500,000. The production before 1892 was inconsiderable, though
extending over a series of years. Geiser Brothers are supposed to have taken out several
hundred dollars. When sold, $300,000 were believed to be in sight. Since 1898, at least an equal
amount has been extracted, making a total production well up toward the million dollar mark
The developments consist of two tunnels, the upper 1,400' long and 230' below the croppings,
the lower, 1,600' long. The latter is the main adit, 338' below the croppings, and the shaft is sunk
in at 600' from the mouth to a depth of about 200'. Further sinking is being carried on at the
present time. In all, there are probably 10,000' of development work. The country rock is a fissile
black clay slate, striking nearly due east-west, and dipping 80 degrees South. A little above the

town of Geiser, at the mill, this slate is cut by a considerable belt of serpentine.
The same rock appears again below Bonanza, toward the diggings of Winterville. To the north
and east, the serpentine and clay slate are covered by andesitic lavas. The veins appear to be
exclusively contained in clay slate. The Bonanza vein, cropping on a hill 500' feet above the mill
and about a half a mile northeast of it, strikes North 50 degrees West and dips steeply southwest.
It is traceable on the surface for about 2,500 feet northwest of the main tunnel, but is then
covered by an extensive lava area.

"The outcrops are neither wide nor conspicuous, and have been stopped to the surface in several
places. The vein appears as one to three feet of quartz between walls of decomposed slate.
In depth it widens enormously in places.

"Permission to visit the mine below tunnel level was refused. The following data relating to the
underground works were obtained from several persons well acquainted with the mine,
and are believed to be mainly correct:
"The ore consists of quartz containing free gold and sulphurets and has considerably
similarity to that of the Red Boy mine. The ore body as a whole forms a mass of clay slate
traversed by quartz veins and seams of all sizes. Something like 70% is free gold, though it
is said that as the depth is increased, more concentrates and less gold are obtained. The
concentrates are said to vary from $20 to $60 per ton, chiefly in gold. The average ore is believed
to run from $7 to $12 per ton, but lenses of ore 8-16"wide have been mined which ran as high up
as $1,400 per ton, and several hundred tons are said to have yielded at a rate of $100
in free gold per ton. ($20.67 per ounce gold in 1900)

"It seemed as if the mine was worked out when the owners were prevailed upon to crosscut at other
places in this adit. These crosscuts, from 30' to 120' long, into the footwall side, disclosed the
presence of a magnificent lenticular mass of gold ore of a maximum width of 40' and 800'long."

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Rock Worth $160,000.....
Rich Strike Made in the Gibraltar
Owned by Paul Poindexter and Claude Basche--Located Near the North Pole Mine --
Now Being Sacked for Shipment......

On September 8, 1900 a wonderfully rich ore deposit was uncovered in the Gibraltar,
about 150' from the mouth of the tunnel. The mine is located near the North Pole, in the
Cracker Creek District and is owned by Claude Basche and Paul Poindexter.

Poindexter was out at the property Sunday, and brought in a sack, full of the rock. It resembles
the rich ore found in the Golconda which has made that mine famous. It is almost black in color,
and is studded with free gold, many of the specimens carrying perhaps ten percent of the precious
metal. A hatful has been assayed and the certificate shows $160,000 to the ton.........
(This works out to 7,740 oz. to the assay ton or $2,012,000 @ $260 per oz gold in 1999)

How much there is of it is, of course, not known. Poindexter says it is scattered across the entire
5' in the face of the tunnel. Where the ledge has been crosscut, it averages about 19' in width.
The rock has carried only fair values up to this point, $18 or $20 dollars, with the exception of at
one place, where $260 assays were obtained. Barren rock has been encountered just before
this last rich strike was made.

Four men are now at work taking out and sacking this precious ore, which will be shipped to a
San Francisco smelter for treatment. If a few tons of it is secured, there will be a celebration in this
town at no distant day. The gentlemen have decided to take the advice of J.H. Robbins and keep
their shirtwaists on until the money is in his bank.

THE SUMPTER MINER

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GOLD MILLS EXPAND

Eighty More Stamps for the District Contracts have been let for new mills to be installed this fall
with a total of 80 stamps. The mines whose owners make this convincing show of their confidence
in their properties are the King Solomon (10 stamps); the Columbia (20 stamps) the North Pole
(10 stamps)--the last name is building a tramway and enlarging the capacity of the cyanide plan--,
and three others whose names cannot now be made public, but which have contracted for one
20 and two 10 stamp mills. There is a strong probability that a 20 and two more 10's will go in
before January 1, but the papers are not yet signed. This will increase the capacity of the mills
immediately by one-half in the mines around Sumpter. The Golconda mine, as soon as its orders
can be filled, will put in a hoist of about equal capacity with that being installed at the Red Boy.
The thought of the improvement now going on and in contemplation here, of which only a small
part has yet been noticed, is particularly gratifying to Sumpterites, as it puts forward for their town's
prosperity, a cash proof which cannot be gainsaid. Money never talks so loud, or are its gentle but
firm accents ever more welcome than when substantial investments in mining properties tell that
the days of speculation and boom are over and that the camp has become a safe field for capital.